That piece can be looked at in two different ways ak. 1. Frank Smith has not met his required number of words, possible since he put up his first bit of the day at 7.10am. 2. He has got a sniff of something happening, tries to find out, but gets rebuffed. In any case it does look as if mentioning £800 is a guess on his part as he doesn't say what period of time that is over and unless he knows what he gets already how can he say that he will treble his pay. Taking a step back from it all, my suspicion is that number 2 is the most likely.
I see QPR have purchased Nedum Onouha from Manchester City for £2.5m. 25 years of age, with over 100 Premier League appearences, 21 England u21 caps, experience of managing a Premiership side, and - from what I can see - 3 years still remaining on his contract. Is the fans suggested RRP of £3-4m for Mariappa a little overzealous?
BBW, managing a PL side? NO was a bit-part player at Money City (although I would've played him ahead of Savic) whereas AM is a regular who is playing well and as has been mentioned, there is what he is worth to his current club which I have explained in the first part of this sentence.
If we drop out of this division, revenue could drop by not much less than that. With Kightly gone, the partnership between Mariappa and Nosworthy is the difference between us being considered very likely to stumble to safety, and being candidates to go down. On top of that Watford are not forcing him to leave, and while I'm sure he'd like to move on one day, I don't think he is desperate to leave in this particular window. So no, I don't think Watford demanding £4m is overzealous. It's for other clubs to decide whether he is worth that amount of money to them right now, or whether they want to try to pick him up for something closer to what we sold Tommy Smith or Tamas Priskin for in the summer. EDIT: or at least, it should be. It remains to be seen what our Dear Leader will do.
I have no idea what credibility this site has, so will leave you to read it. http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/watford-set-price-newcastle-target-mariappa-2655311
About as much credibility as any football web-site OFH. When you think about it, most football web sites are nothing more than advertising spaces so the content does not really matter, anything to attract a punter...
Yes, I agree with that, but wonder how the average fan such as you and me is expected to gather snippets of information about things that directly affect our club that we can believe in. The official site tells us nothing until after it has happened and then only the bits that it thinks we will be able to take in without getting confused. If there were no rumours or speculation then the average fan would have nothing much to talk about. The old fashioned idea of talking about things over a pint on match day has largely been replaced by the Internet, and we all know that people can say fairly silly things to gain some attention. You only have to read what is being written about the goings on at Pompey to see how stupid it can get.
I saw a mention of Arsenal Wenger offering GBP4M for AM but can not remember where or I would put a link.
Its hardly a surprise that Mariappa would be tempted by a move to a top Premiership side and no doubt his agent thinks the same but he'd be better staying with us and then moving in the summer when we might need the money anyway!
I hope he does stay to the summer, but we need to be aware that he will then be in the last year of his contract so his value will have fallen a lot.
From WFC forums via Twitter (I presume) InsiderSJP Bill Probably a bit late (I have a life too) but deal for Mariappa is back on. Player open to move and may force through a deal #nufc
I think the difference is that Onouha is at Man City.....a club who are not amazingly particular with their money. They are playing hard ball on the Tevez transfer, but that's probably more of a publicity statement than about the money.
According to this, Danny Simpson has now knocked back two contract offers. Maybe they're worried & hunting for replacements. http://www.nufcblog.com/2012/01/26/newcastle-to-work-on-contracts-once-transfer-window-slams-shut/ Will try to keep you guys updated on any snippets I pick up.
From our perspective, we need a 4th centre back and Mariappa is top of the list (though apparently we have "8 or 9" targets from the Championship). Our budget for this window is about 8million but we wont blow it all on one player, need 2 or 3. Cant see him replacing Simpson at right back, all of our full backs are right footed anyway.
I know the feeling, hate taking a club's star player. I dont see us persisting too long, we rarely make a 2nd bid for a player, either our price or no deal (depends what sort of mentality your owner/chairman have?). Depends who else is available as well. Best of luck for the season, either way
thanks, you too! I think we'd accept a much higher bid, otherwise he'll stay put. Good to know you won't bid twice!
I said else where that i dont think he will be going anywhere this time. There are 5 days left in the window in which time Newcastle have to come up with a significantly increased offer and then the paperwork has to be done. Its too short notice i think. Maybe if there was a week left. I will lay my cards on the table and say that we will have the same team come Feb 1st.
i'm not convinced. I don't think we'll lose anyone else, but losing Mapps is a real possibility. Other clubs are now interested and Sky keep saying he would like prem football..who wouldn't, but they're making it an issue. These things can be done very quickly..i think we'll struggle to keep him in this window...
